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<\/p>\nA Vancouver restaurant owner says he is getting increasingly frustrated about the red tape surrounding liquor sales in the province, especially as the B.C. General Employees Union strike is now in its seventh week.<\/p>\n
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Ignacio Arrieta has owned the popular Mexican restaurant La Mezcaleria on Commercial Drive for 14 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy business has been consistently 60 per cent alcohol, forty food, for the fourteen years of operation,\u201d he told Global News.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow my sales for alcohol went down thirty per cent and you know, alcohol sales are where the margins are right now for the restaurants in the restaurant industry, considering the high cost of food.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arrieta said he has made a number of changes to the way he runs his restaurant as the strike continues and the worry about access to alcohol products grows larger.<\/p>\n
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He said he has reduced the restaurant\u2019s hours and switched up some of the cocktails on offer to coincide with the liquor he has more available.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know how long, we\u2019re just trying to figure things out as we go, like trying to get some of the local products and reaching out to suppliers,\u201d Arrieta said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are also struggling. They are also unemployed right now, the distributors, there\u2019s a lot of people hurt and we\u2019re just trying to work together and figure out how to navigate these challenging times.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Next door to La Mezcaleria is Liberty Wine, which Arrieta says has a lot of the products his restaurant needs.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey have all the alcohol we need,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey have a great selection of Agave spirits as well. And we would like to have the opportunity to buy from different suppliers, private liquor stores or from whatever we want, not only the government stores.\u201d<\/p>\n
B.C. restaurants can only purchase alcohol from the government\u2019s liquor distribution branch<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to keep the businesses going because we all have our commitments with our employees and other business commitments,\u201d Arrieta said.<\/p>\n
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Robert Simpson owns Liberty Wine Merchants next door and told Global News they still have a lot of product in stock, except for wines under $30, which are slim pickings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really started to notice the impact when the government store down the street closed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there\u2019s a lot of people that, you know, they have a price point. They have a budget, a $12.00 wine, or I can spend $15.00, or there\u2019s no way I can spend more than twenty. And I understand that. I mean, everyone has a budget. And so those wines depleted really quickly. And we\u2019re really struggling to fill gaps in that price point.\u201d<\/p>\n
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